awful picture quality

[EAZYROG]

Hope you guys can help a beginner out here.

I have a 50" Philips 7320 HDTV Plasma, NTL Digital Cable and a Panasonic DVD Player.

The TV has 2 scart sockets and a dvi input (not using the dvi yet)

NTL
Scart 1 of the TV has the ntl box using a £20.00 Scart to Scart lead.
Its a Pace Digital box.

Scart 2 has the Panasonic DVD Player using another £20.00 Scart to Scart lead.

The Tv Arial plugs directly into the tv.

The Picture on 1,2,3,4 & 5 is good.

The Picture on AV1 (NTL) is not very good

The Picture on AV2 (DVD) is awful

Can someone please please give me some advice on this situation, i have no idea what i am doing wrong. i do know i have spent a lot of money.

Thanks.

Roger

[sprattgraham]

I have the Sagem HD-D45 and have NTL depending on the channel you are on the picture quality is ok the movie channels and Sky One are the best.

Make sure you are using RGB in the NTL Settings and the same for the DVD player. Remember the bigger the screen the worse the low quality sources will look.

When you start using DVI the picture will look a lot better.

[EAZYROG]

Thanks mate, got ntl to change my box and now its great

[Stephen Neal]

Are both SCART sockets RGB? If not one of your sources will be working composite, and look noticably worse.

[EAZYROG]

onyl scart 1 is rGB, scart 2 is used for the DVD player and not very clear

[Stephen Neal]

If AV2 is non-RGB then the quality of a DVD player connected via AV2 will be pretty poor. You could improve it slightly if both the DVD player and TV support S-video via SCART and AV2. Alternatively if your TV has Component inputs and your DVD player has component outputs, this will offer similar quality to RGB - and possibly even progressive.

If your NTL box supports RGB loopthrough it is possible that you could connect your DVD player through the NTL box, and thus when the NTL box is in standby, you can then watch DVDs in RGB. Sky boxes support this, not sure if NTL boxes do. This way both the DVD player and Sky box are connected RGB. If your DVD player is really a DVD recorder, then these often have RGB loopthrough as well.

Alternatively you could get an RGB SCART switchbox (make sure it is RGB).

Another option is replacing your DVD player with a model with component out or HDMI out - though if you are planning on going Sky HD at any point you'll want to keep the HDMI free I guess.

[fallenangle]

It's fairly normal for any TV with 2 SCART sockets to have only one fully RGB compatible. The other may have S-Video capability but this will only function if the equipment connected is compliant too. It's more likely just to be giving basic composite results. It seems to be a convention to have a non-RGB SCART merely because VCRs and older DVDs didn't have RGB output.

Anyway the simplest solution is as said: buy a fully wired SCART switcher and connect that to your RGB SCART socket.